Boy's Own Paper (Oct 1966)

Sorry for the lack of posts, life has gotten busy for a while. So here is a delta winged beauty for you.

Boy's Own Paper (BOP) was one of a couple of British magazines for kids that had a mixture of fact and fiction.

I still remember when we thought this was the shape of the future for rocket ships as well as the memorable break-up of one as depicted in the opening credit to the Six Million Dollar Man.

Donald Duck and Wernher von Braun on the Moon (1958?)

This post is dedicated to one of my favorite blogs Ephemera (http://ephemera.typepad.com/). Ephemera does a great job of showing that every object or scrap of paper can have a story if you look a little.





So the object in question is a pair of gloves (child sized). While not a licensed Disney product they are well made and have images of Donald Duck exploring the Moon on one side of the cuff and a ship flying over the moon on the other side. I bought them from a seller in Mexico so suspect they were some sort of bootleg product.







If you look closely at Donald Duck's head it is an appliqué on top of the space suit. This begs the question whether it was originally a man's head in the space suit.








The second question to ask is about this space ship. I am very familiar with this one. It is RM-1, designed by Wernher von Braun for the Walt Disney television film called "Man And The Moon" broadcast December 28, 1955. RM-1 was meant to illustrate what a factual around the moon space ship might look like. In the film it was portrayed by this model.





So these gloves have to date from after 1955. As far as I know there were very few products derived from the movie but the quality of printing on the gloves is very nice and it looks like these gloves were not a 0ne-of-a-kind trial.



So is the image of Donald Duck and a Wernher von Braun designed rocket a unique collision of fact and fantasy? Donald Duck on the Moon is fantasy but was this meant to inspire children to "dream of space"? More questions than answers but the gloves are neat.



Here is the children's book with these images Tomorrow the Moon (1959):

Out into Space (1965)

Pretty pictures for today. Who knew lurking inside one of those dull looking gray classroom books there were be these gorgeous paintings.

Parker, Bertha Morris. Illustrated by Dugan, William. Out Into Space. New York: Harper and Row. (36 p.) 22 cm. Cloth, DJ.

Describes the theory behind rockets, basic facts about space flight, a summary up to that point of space travel, and a quick look at the planned trips to the Moon and space stations.

Junior Scholastic (1961)

Weekly Reader and Junior Scholastic were two mainstays in my elementary school days. These were weekly "newspapers" printed for school use. They would be used to teach current events or to add to a science or social studies unit. For those of us in school they felt like a break in the school day. They had a couple of news stories, some jokes, even a cartoon. While most people did not keep them, I occasionally find a few on Ebay about space flight.

Fall is in the air where I live and school and space seem to go together like hot chocolate and ghost stories.

Man-made Moons :The earth satellites and what they will tell us. (1957)

Another satellite book for you. This one was copyrighted in 1957 but published in 1958. Probably because the author needed to update the text at the last minute.

Adler, Irving. Illustrated by Adler, Ruth. Man-Made Moons : The Earth Satellites and What they tell us. New York : John Day Co. (128 p.) 21 cm.

See also revised as part of Adler. “Seeing the Earth from space…” (1959).

Exploring Earth and Space: The story of the I.G.Y. (1957)

Hyde, Margaret O. Illustrated by Geary, Clifford N. Exploring Earth and Space: The Story of the I.G.Y. New York : Whittlesey House. (160 p.) 21 cm.

Also written in response to the anticipated start of the International Geophysical Year, this book devotes 4 chapters to research rockets, biomedical testing of animals and satellites. Illustration of rockets and an Earth satellite (theoretical). The text shows how space travel and exploration of space in the public mind was thought to be imminent but it was not urgent. See 1958 reprint. Also 1959, 1963, 1967, 1970 editions.

Roy Gallant

A redirect for today. Wired magazine has highlighted the book art from one of my favorite non-fiction children's book authors, Roy Gallant. His 1955 book Exploring the Moon and 1956 Exploring Mars have great illustrations by Lowell Hess.

Check the article out here:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_vintagescience_gallant/